Its my understanding that The teams can't agree on rules without violating antitrust laws. The judge ruled that the decertification of the union was legit; therefore 32 teams can't impose uniform rules on a non-unionized workforce.

Personally I'm hoping the circuit court grants a stay and the NFL wins an appeal. The players have too much power an the owners have none. The union can strike but the NFL can't lockout. It's not fair. This situation is just going to force the owners to make another bad deal.

Technically the owners do have the right to fire/release players. However, they don't wish to do that cause there is nothing stopping another club from picking them up. The lockout lets the owners retain their contract rights to players during the stopage which is probably why it was ruled illegal.

DeMaurice Smith was just on Mike and Mike, the guy is a little weasel.
Mike was mostly pushing for an answer regarding trades and FA on draft day happening and all Smith would say is that the owners are losers and they lost in this they lost in that blah blah blah...what an annoying little lawyer twerp.

Gotta agree with this post here. He just comes across as an attention grabbing little troll. If the players want to keep the public on their side, they need a new front man.

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

DeMaurice Smith was just on Mike and Mike, the guy is a little weasel.
Mike was mostly pushing for an answer regarding trades and FA on draft day happening and all Smith would say is that the owners are losers and they lost in this they lost in that blah blah blah...what an annoying little lawyer twerp.

ďI read the commissionerís [Wall Street Journal] op-ed this morning and my only conclusion is that itís bizarre. To say that the players donít want a draft and donít want football...we didnít lock ourselves out. We didnít game the TV contracts to hurt us. And if he truly believes that the draft is something weíre attacking, then I donít know whatís going to happen on Thursday, but the last time I checked my calendar, the draft is scheduled to move forward.Ē

The NFLPA lawyers most certainly are attacking the draft. They can't stop this one, because it was in the last CBA, but certainly the lawsuit Brady v NFL attacks the legal foundation of a draft.

I am in the extreme minority because I would rather see a whole year of no NFL and let both sides learn some humility (unfortunately a lot of good people would be hurt by that and that is extremely unfair when these two sides are both doing very well by all accounts)

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

There was picture of Brandon Marshall's house on CNN yesterday.
When I see pictures like that I have a hard time agreeing with you.

I'm not enjoying seeing "the Man" get screwed if it means FA, trades and the NFL year is foxxored.

There was picture of Brandon Marshall's house on CNN yesterday.
When I see pictures like that I have a hard time agreeing with you.

I'm not enjoying seeing "the Man" get screwed if it means FA, trades and the NFL year is foxxored.

I would say that players who make a lot of money such as Marshall, represent a small percentage of the people affected by this, when you add up your run of the mill bench warmer player, mid-to-low level league employees, coaching assistants, trainers, and mid-to-low level team employees.

If the league was full of players making Brady's or Manning's salary, it'd be one thing. But many people that are being furloughed, not being paid, or having their salaries cut don't make that type of money.

There was picture of Brandon Marshall's house on CNN yesterday.
When I see pictures like that I have a hard time agreeing with you.

I'm not enjoying seeing "the Man" get screwed if it means FA, trades and the NFL year is foxxored.

So out of the 1500 players, you use Brandon Marshall as your example? For every idiot like him, there are many London Fletcher, Andre Carter, Phillip Daniels, Chris Samuels. Those guys are just magnified because it creates drama and drama sells papers and ratings.

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

It's so clear where your biases lie, (i don't hide mine either) that the players could be 100% in the wrong, and you would still sing the virtue of "fighting the power". None of these guys (the ones pushing this fight) deserve respect because they all are self-obsessed ego-maniacs, regardless of the face they put on in public.

I would say that players who make a lot of money such as Marshall, represent a small percentage of the people affected by this, when you add up your run of the mill bench warmer player, mid-to-low level league employees, coaching assistants, trainers, and mid-to-low level team employees.

If the league was full of players making Brady's or Manning's salary, it'd be one thing. But many people that are being furloughed, not being paid, or having their salaries cut don't make that type of money.

every player that stays in the league(not practice squad) 3 years will have made at least 1million dollars based on the previous CBA, not Manning money, but also not chump change. I agree about assistants, trainers and the non-player workers.

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

I find it a stretch to infer professional athletes as an American Workforce fighting a greedy corporation/system. We are not talking about teachers in Wisconsin or auto workers in Detroit. We are talking about elite, high paid athletes (i think the league minimum is 300k+) who want to keep a higher share of revenue than the owners want them to have. I don't have a dog in this fight but I think it far fetched for aither party to play the victim.

I find it a stretch to infer professional athletes as an American Workforce fighting a greedy corporation/system. We are not talking about teachers in Wisconsin or auto workers in Detroit. We are talking about elite, high paid athletes (i think the league minimum is 300k+) who want to keep a higher share of revenue than the owners want them to have. I don't have a dog in this fight but I think it far fetched for aither party to play the victim.

I agree with this, but there are other people that make regular salaries that are getting screwed by this lockout.

Also, I still think that teams will have long term effects b/c they were not able to deal in free agency, have offseason programs to install offenses/defenses, and make draft decisions w/o free agency.

One question, and it is probably naive. IF the judge forces the league to start a "league year", and forces them to put rules in place to operate, then HOW can the owners then be sued for anti-trust violations. I simply don't understand the players can have it both ways: you can't treat us like a collective group, however, you must behave like a collective group, and once you do we will sue you because you are acting like an illegal collective group.